Automation World Product Selection & Applied Technology Handbook 2020

Page 15

Product Selection and Applied Technology Handbook 2020

15

How to Evaluate IoT Platforms A digital transformation can’t take place without a software architecture capable of supporting it. Given that, what factors should most influence your decision on an Internet of Things platform?

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early every major automation technology supplier offers Internet of Things (IoT) platform software as a means of providing an architecture around which to coordinate your plant floor systems for information technology (IT) consumption and collaboration. But how should you go about assessing these platforms, which can appear both very similar and distinctly different from each other.

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One of the first things to understand is that the IoT is about open interoperability and scalable connectivity. In the consumer space, IoT developers have the luxury of designing with only IoT compatible devices in mind. Devices like modern smartphones and tablets or purpose-built IoT devices. In the industrial space, however, backwards compatibility is often a significant consideration because of the cost involved in replacing existing systems and because of the

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